MTSU volleyball unveils 2014 schedule

The 2014 MTSU volleyball schedule was announced Friday by coach Matt Peck. The schedule features three NCAA tournament teams from a year ago and four tournaments before starting Conference USA action.

The 2013 Blue Raider squad finished 17-13 and 8-6 in their first year in C-USA. MTSU welcomes back nine returners from last year’s team, including junior Chelsea Ross who led the team with 391 kills. Joining Ross are Ailime de Freita, Monet Marshall and Rachel Shaughnessy, who each played in 100 sets or more during 2013. Other notable returners include Maya Miller, Bridget Keller, Jazmyne Johnson, Eseta Maka and Miri Shade.

“Once again, we have a very challenging schedule,” Peck said. “We will be playing three teams that participated in last year’s NCAA tournament and 10 matches against teams with RPIs below 100. I believe scheduling tough in the non-conference portion of the season better prepares our team for conference play. Our road matches the opening weekend against Dayton, Pittsburgh and Bowling Green will be very challenging. All three squads have had a great deal of success recently.”

MTSU opens its season on the road, competing in the Hampton Inn Invitational in Bowling Green, Ohio. The Blue Raiders are slated to play Pittsburgh on Aug. 29 before closing the final day of the tournament versus Bowling Green and Dayton on Aug. 30. MTSU then travels back to Murfreesboro for its first home contest against Southern Illinois on Sept. 2.

In the second tournament of the year, the Blue Raiders take on UCF and Kansas State on Sept. 5 and conclude play against Arkansas on Sept. 6 in the K-State Invitational.

Following the tournament in Manhattan, MTSU welcomes Virginia Tech for a match on Sept. 11 before the annual Blue Raider Bash Sept. 12-13 against 2013 NCAA tournament team Illinois and Belmont.

“This year’s Blue Raider Bash will once again be a very strong tournament,” Peck said. “With teams from the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC, along with an always competitive Belmont squad in attendance, we are bringing some of the country’s best teams to Murfreesboro.”

After the home tournament, MTSU travels to the Seton Hall Classic. The Blue Raiders will play Dartmouth (Sept. 19), Fordham and tournament-host Seton Hall (Sept. 20) to close the final regular season tournament of 2014.

Before completing the final stretch of conference games, the Blue Raiders travel to in-state foe ETSU on Oct. 7, and pick up C-USA action in Murfreesboro against Rice (Oct. 10) and UTEP (Oct. 12).

“As two of the three C-USA teams that finished ahead of us are now out of the conference, I feel the conference title is once again up for grabs,” Peck said. “ETSU has also had great success of late, and we expect them to present some problems for us.”

This year’s C-USA Championships will be held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, from Nov. 27-29.